Historically postage meters have been mechanical and electromechanical devices that: maintain through mechanical or "electronic registers" (postal security devices) an account of all postage printed and the remaining balance of prepaid postage; and print postage postmarks (indicia) that are accepted by the postal service as evidence of the prepayment of postage.
Soon small business mailers may be able to use their desktop computer and printer to apply postage directly onto envelopes or labels while applying an address. The United States Postal Service Engineering Center recently published a notice of proposed specification that may accomplish the foregoing. The title of the specification is Information Based Indicia Program Postal Security Device Specification, dated Jun. 13, 1996, herein incorporated by reference. The Information Based Indicia Program specification includes both proposed specifications for the new indicium and proposed specifications for a postal security device (PSD). The proposed Information-Based Indicia (IBI) consists of a two dimensional bar code containing hundreds of bytes of information about the mail piece and certain human-readable information. The indicium includes a digital signature to preclude the forgery of indicia by unauthorized parties. The postal security device is a security device that produces a cryptographic digital signature for the indicium and performs the function of postage meter registers.
There are approximately one and a half million postage meters in use in the United States, accounting for about twenty billion dollars of postage revenue annually. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is authorized to regulate the manufacture and use of postage meters. For the past several years, the United States Postal Service has been actively proposing a solution to the problem of inadequate postage meter security. The United States Postal Service is also trying to solve the problem that currently available postal meter indicia are susceptible to counterfeiting. The United States Postal Service plans to solve the above problems by decertifying mechanical meters and implementing the Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP).
The IBIP is a United States Postal Service initiative supporting the development and implementation of a new form of postal indicia. The IBIP specification is intended to address the counterfeiting threat. An IBIP indicium substitutes for a postage stamp or as a postage meter imprint as evidence of the fact that postage has been paid on mail pieces. The Information-Based Indicia technology of the United States Postal Service offers the postal customer a way to pay for postage without stamps. Envelopes may be franked using the postal customer's personal computer, a personal computer compatible add-on and the customer's printer. The PSD provides postal value storage and the link to the USPS and the manufacturer of the personal computer compatible add-on. The IBI should be able to be read at any time to verify that funds have been paid.
The United States Postal Service currently handles large volumes of normal mail, i.e., first class mail, second class mail and third class mail. The post delivers normal mail and the post and sender of normal mail are unaware of the time that the addressee received the normal mail. If the sender of mail wants to know that the mail was delivered to a particular address and/or addressee, the sender may use the Post's expensive certified or registered mail service.